Muskegon school employees take pay cut to save their jobs

Muskegon Public Schools custodians, maintenance workers and bus drivers have accepted a 5.5 percent pay cut in order to keep their jobs. In this file photo, custodian Bryan Harrell works to transform the former Bunker Middle School into Lakeside Elementary School.MLive file photo

MUSKEGON, MI -- Some Muskegon school employees have taken a 5.5 percent pay cut to avoid having their jobs privatized.

The district’s bus drivers, custodians and maintenance workers agreed to the wage concessions totaling $180,000 as part of a new three-year contract with the school district.

“It was a pretty difficult pill for some of them to swallow,” said Betty Savage, assistant superintendent for human services.

The district’s Non-instructional Employees Association has ratified the three-year contract, and the school board is expected to approve it Tuesday.

Total savings from the contract are $256,455, Savage said. They include not filling a vacant custodial position and complying with state law that caps how much the district can pay for employee health insurance, she said.

The district could have saved $750,000 if it chose to privatize the bargaining unit’s 90 positions, said Superintendent Jon Felske. Most school districts in Muskegon County have already privatized some or all of the types of positions in the NIEA group.

Instead, the district told union bargainers that it needed $239,000 in concessions, district officials said.

Felske said the district views its employees as part of “our school family” and said many of the NIEA members live in the district.

“They’ve been here a long time, and we know the quality of the work they do,” Felske said. “We want to preserve as many jobs during these tough economic times to show loyalty to our employees.”

NIEA President Jeff Herbert said the union members were “kind of split” over the agreement that the two sides came up with. Bus drivers are in high demand, he pointed out.

“We just stick together as a group and have each others’ backs,” Herbert said. “We made the concession to keep our jobs.”

The lowest salaries in the bargaining unit will drop from $10 per hour to $9.45, while the highest will drop from $20.88 to $18.85 as a result of the agreement.

The wage cut is effective for only this, the first year, of the three-year contract. Wages will be renegotiated in the subsequent years, Savage said.

The contract also caps the district’s health insurance costs, as required by state law, at $5,500 for single coverage, $11,000 for double coverage and $15,000 for family coverage. That will save the district $40,000 Savage said.

For the group’s previous contract, which expired June 30, the employees had accepted a two-tiered wage and benefit scale – one for those hired prior to July 1, 2010, and one for those hired after. Those hired after qualify only for single-coverage health insurance. Herbert said there was also a 2 percent wage cut.

“I want to thank the board for keeping us employed,” said Herbert, who is a maintenance worker for the district. “They should take pride that they are one of the few school districts that hasn’t outsourced.”

He said other groups currently bargaining with the district should follow his bargaining unit's lead. Those groups include the teachers union.